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Gemini Shadow (New Endeavours)
Biography Early Life Gemini was born as one of the first test cases of a cloning program begun by Starfleet Medical and the Royal Equestrian Medical Association. Conceived as a humanoid, female clone of her father Orion, Gem shares her father's vast intellect, unique problem solving skills, and moral compass with the advantage of having, as her father called it, "a woman's touch." Gem first attended school with her fellow clones at Ponyville Elementary, but dropped out when their personal physical development exceeded the confines of the school building. Left with no other options, she and her fellow clones were taught at home by their parents. Magically speaking, she is capable of using traditional pony magic, though through the medium of her hands rather than a horn. This ability was discovered when saving her 'Aunt' Twilight's life when Ponyville was briefly attacked by a hostile force, again. Starfleet Academy At 18, she emigrated to Earth and became a pseudo-apprentice of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and started school at Starfleet Academy as a cadet. One of her professors, the famous William Riker, recognized her knack for leadership and he, along with Picard, recommended that she be placed in the Future Officers Program. Starfleet Career After graduation, Gem and her fellow Equestrian humans joined the crew of the USS Icarus, where she served as First Officer for two years as part of a shakedown cruise. Following the completion of shakedown, she was given command of her own starship, a refitted version of her father's old vessel, the USS Shadowfall (NCC-1123). The ship was rechristened Endeavour and given a new registry number, NCC-0326. Further redesigns included a magically-expanded captain's ready room just off the main bridge and restoration of human-sized command chairs for herself and her first officer. The Endeavour's warp core is partially augmented by Equestrian magic, a technique Gem's father first experimented with during his brief time aboard the Enterprise-D, and later refined by Twilight Sparkle. Relationships Relationships during her years in Equestria were very complex. Ponies who were not familiar with her often stayed away, believing her to be some sort of threat, even after it was explained to them that she was perfectly safe. Dating was essentially out of the question, due to the vast gulf of differences between herself and Equestria's female population. While she formed a few friendships with ponies, the bulk of her social time was spent with the clones she had grown up with. She maintains a close friendship with the long-retired Jean-Luc Picard, and sees him as a secondary father figure. She has also begun dating Dusk Runner, the Mirror Universe incarnation of Dustin Hoofer. Temprament Gem entered Starfleet knowing that she had to live up to her father's legacy, while establishing her own as well. Her relative inexperience made this very difficult, and as a result, she usually tried to find quick resolutions for everything, sometimes without looking at all the parameters of the situation. She frequently relies on her the other senior staff to back her down a notch and get her to see the big picture. Tropes * Awesomeness by Analysis: Pulls off one of these when she’s able to deduce that the crew of Starbase 421 aren’t human based on one fact: their vital signs are perfect. She had brushed this off as insignificant earlier, but when the same trait started showing up in other members of the crew, that sets her off. * Badass Boast: Gives two of these in "Requiem," to a Romulan captain and a Starfleet officer who planned her downfall in her own ready room. * Gives another one to Captain Abacus Cinch, temporary captain of the Endeavour and partially responsible for having her, Dustin, and Adagio given to the Cardassians in “Four Lights.” * Badass Bookworm: No kidding. Inherited her father’s intellect and has Princess Twilight Sparkle for an aunt. She spends most of her off-duty hours reading a book. * Berserk Button: A very quick way to make her absolutely furious is to threaten her ship, her crew, and herself, in that order, as Chekov and Alan Brown discovered. * Beware the Nice Ones: Gem has an astounding amount of magical talent and isn’t afraid to use it. Her verbal beatdowns are of equal calibre to her father’s, to the point that she threatens to end the career of a fellow officer by any legal means necessary because he sold her to the Cardassians. * Benevolent Boss: To be expected, considering how long she’s known the bridge crew. She’ll usually turn to Raven and Adagio for help in combat situations. * Blue Blood: The daughter of an esteemed Starfleet captain and an Equestrian noble with the ear of the Princesses, but especially Luna. She prefers to earn her keep though, and started at the Academy as a cadet with everyone else. * Brainy Specs: She owns a pair of these, as seen in Season 1’s “The Forgotten Son,” the epilogue in “The Dark Dimension,” and “The Moment.” She uses them primarily for reading, squinting at displays, and generally looking exactly like a female version of her father. * British Stuffiness: Averted some of the time, she loves children and gets very enthusiastic about some things. * Broken Pedestal: She is beginning to take this view toward Starfleet in general. Part of the reason for this is that she strongly suspects Captain Brown had her father murdered, and he did give her to the Cardassians for experimentation. While Picard has been quick to reassure her, she still remains somewhat cynical. * The Captain: Cast in the Picard mold with a bit of Janeway. * Catchphrase: “Engage,” borrowed from her mentor, Jean-Luc Picard. * Character Tics: Likes to make herself a cup of tea when stressed or lose herself in a book. When not on the bridge, she’ll usually be in her ready room. * The Chains of Commanding: Discussed repeatedly, in that she gets too wrapped up in her work a lot of the time, leading to snapping at random crew members or forgetting when her birthday is. * Control Freak: Shows signs of this in "Shakedown" and "Errand of Mercy." Longhaul notes on both occasions that it's because she prefers quick and simple solutions, justified in that she usually has those in Equestria. In later stories she begins to improve and explore other options. * Damsel in Distress: Averted. She knows defensive magic very well and often prefers it to a phaser, usually in the form of her magic screwdriver, so she can hold her own in a combat situation. When captured or otherwise placed on the back foot, she dishes out verbal beat downs just as well as Orion did. * Deadpan Snarker: Every so often, though not to the extent of her teenage counterpart. * The Determinatior: To always do the right thing, whatever the cost, and to protect her ship and crew by any means necessary. * Defiant to the End: ** Happens in “The Moment” when they are about to be killed by Jem’Hadar ships. ** And again in “Four Lights,” though this is subverted somewhat when she tells Sunset that she could nearly see five lights, as Gul Madred wanted her to. * Does Not Like Guns: Explored, and mentioned in the narration during “Errand of Mercy.” It stems from a childhood trauma centered around Orion getting threatened and attacked by some Romulans, leading to her almost flunking out of weapons class at the Academy. Subsequent stories have made her less afraid of them, but she still prefers the diplomatic route when possible. * Drink Order: Her beloved earl grey tea, as with Orion and Picard. * Evil Twin: Gem's Mirror Universe incarnation, the daughter of Lord Orion Shadow. She's ruthless and regularly threatens people with murder. Mirror Gem believes her Prime counterpart is a crushing bore, while Gem Prime feels her Mirror self is a crazed maniac. * Father, I Don’t Want to Fight: Gem refuses to use her phaser unless absolutely necessary because of a traumatic experience she had as a girl. Adagio helps her get over it when they’re at the Academy together. * First Name Basis: Varies, depending who she’s talking to. Picard is usually referred to as Jean-Luc to reflect his status as a family friend, while Raven is referred to either by her rank or as “Sister,” depending on the context of the conversation. In on-duty situations, the rest of the crew (except Emerald) is referred to as “Ms. Dazzle” or “Ms. Sparkle,” then by first names during off-duty hours. Sometimes Gem is the one to initiate it, as she does in “Up the Ladder” when requesting that the sirens (whom she’s visiting in Ten Forward) refer to her as Gem while they’re talking. ** The Eleventh Doctor calls her either Gem, Gemini, or Captain depending on context, she takes it all in stride. * The Knights Who Say Squee: To a degree in any of the crossover stories with canon Trek crews, usually Kirk’s or Janeway’s. * Lady of Adventure: It comes with being the captain of a starship. She is a Starfleet officer because she loves exploring space and going on fantastic adventures on the Endeavour, but always maintains an air of dignity and class, given her noble upbringing. * Mama Bear: Threaten her crew, her ship, or both and she will verbally tear you to shreds while thinking of ways to bring you down in spectacular fashion. * Married to the Job: A topic of discussion in one of the side stories, related to The Chains of Commanding. * Military Maverick: Gem is showing signs of becoming this. Justified in that her experiences with Alan Brown have shown her that Starfleet is not quite as noble as she believed, so more often than not she prefers to rely on her own crew in a tough spot. * A Mother to Her Men: Or more accurately, a protective older sister. Mother of sorts to Mandy Tanner. * Smug Snake: Gem’s Mirror counterpart is this. * The Spock: Of a sort, to Raven’s Kirk. She puts the livelihood of her ship, her crew, and herself first. To her, Spock's dying words in Wrath of Khan are a guiding principle she tries to adhere to at all costs, as seen in "The Moment" where she sends her father's time-shifted ship back through the time rift to their deaths because she knows the altered timeline will be wiped clean, and because Orion asked her to. * The Reason You Suck Speech: ** Gives an impressive one to Chekov when he comes damn close to putting the Federation in war. It helps that half of it is lifted from the Doctor Who episode “The Zygon Inversion,” which also features a formerly good character turning evil. ** Combines this with “Badass Boast” as above. * Talking the Monster to Death: Gem's usual method of problem solving begins with this as a first step, and it very rarely works. Her second step is to reluctantly give in and use the ship's weapons systems. As of "Requiem," she doesn't do this when facing down an enemy that she knows won't listen, like the Romulans or the Borg. * Technical Pacifist: Gem prefers diplomacy when possible, but post-Errand of Mercy, she is less reluctant to use the ship's weaponry when the situation calls for it, leading to the scene in "Requiem" where she blows up a cloaked Romulan ship to avenge her parents, but mostly because it was about to fire on the Endeavour first. * This is For: Said verbatim by Gem during a short battle scene early in "Requiem." * To Be Lawful or Good: Gem usually picks "Good," regardless of what regulations tell her. This is expanded to the rest of the crew when Raven spearheads a mutiny against Abacus Cinch to rescue Gem after her kidnapping. In Season 2, Gem uses this as justification for refusing to help Nechayev in her genocide scheme. * Tranquil Fury: Appears in "The Forgotten Son" when it turns out that Chekov is using her ship to betray the Federation. She is not pleased. * What Would X Do?: Asked by Gem to Picard shortly before she goes back in time to the 2260s. Picard replies by throwing the question back at her. * You Look Familiar: Discussed with the Eleventh Doctor when they meet in "Assimilation Squared," as Gem is struck by the similarities between him and her late father. Category:Characters Category:New Endeavours